Na'im Madyun

Low Black Student Retention on a Predominantly White Campus: Two Faculty Respond with the African American Student Network.

Black student retention in institutions of higher education is an important 21st-century issue. Thompson, Gorin, Obeidat, and Chen (2006) asserted that Blacks are still underrepresented in institutions of higher education and graduate at lower rates than Whites and Asians over a 5-year period. According to the American Council on Education, at the turn of the century only 40% of eligible Black students went to college, with only 46% of the 40% graduating within 6 years (Astin & Oseguera, 2005). At our own university, a large Midwestern research institution, available data indicate that the 4-year graduation rate for even the highest ability students is approximately 25% higher for Whites than for Blacks (Zetterberg, 2003). This public university serves more than 65,000 students, with 40,437 of those being undergraduates (University Relations, 2006); Blacks make up 4.7% of the undergraduate population, and students of color comprise 17.3% (Office of Institutional Research, 2006). Considering Black undergraduates who enrolled in 1998, of those with the highest college entrance scores only about 25% graduated 4 years later, in 2002 (Zetterberg). In an effort to improve retention and graduation rates on our campus, two Black faculty have responded with the African American Student Network, or as students call it AFAM (signifying African American and “A Family”). We write the current paper to share our response to the problem of retention at our university and to explore Black student experiences. We include an overview of our program and a pilot study assessing the program’s impact.

The evolution of the European Union’s lifelong learning policies: an institutional learning perspective

The EU’s lifelong learning policy has emerged as an overarching educational reform policy intended to address a wide range of issues, including education, employment and competitiveness. The question has been raised as to whether the resulting policy is merely a catch‐all concept that can be applied to any needs or whether it is underpinned by a comprehensive concept and strategy. This article advances the notion of institutional learning as the selective adoption by organisations of characteristics or policies from other organisations, as opposed to the wholesale homogenisation suggested by institutional isomorphism. Based on our periodisation of international lifelong learning policy, this article argues that a complete historical analysis of the discourse on lifelong learning, coupled with an analysis of the European Commission’s institutional learning from others will give a more appropriate picture of what contributed to the current conceptualisation of lifelong learning.

Community Influences on E/BD Student Achievement:

No Child Left Behind has mandated that all students reach proficiency by 2014. This mandate places special emphasis on the performance of special education students. The purpose of this study is to use social theory to understand the factors that explain the achievement of emotionally or behaviorally disordered (E/BD) students. Results suggest a differential effect of neighborhood composition on the development of social ties for Black and White E/BD students. The author argues for an increased awareness of the development of within-school social ties that integrate groups.

The Impact of Neighborhood Disadvantage on the Black-White Achievement Gap.

Contextual analysis of the achievement gap has gained much momentum within the last few decades. This study furthers the discourse by examining the applicability of 2 sociological contextual development approaches on achievement. We analyzed 79 neighborhoods organized by the level of crime and poverty from both a social disorganization and social mobilization perspective. We found that the social mobilization perspective was more consistent with the experiences of Black students, whereas social disorganization theory better explained White achievement outcomes. The findings also suggest that White students in disadvantaged neighborhoods might be a grossly overlooked at-risk group.

The influence of female-headed households on black achievement

This study attempts to go beyond the individual-level factors that explain the underachievement of the Black male student and specifically focuses on the enormous growth of female-headed households. To this end, 2,849 middle school students in a large Midwestern school district in the United States were used. It was found that there is a significant association between the proportion of female-headed households and the achievement of Black male students only, in contrast to that of Black female and White students. Specifically, as the proportion of female-headed households in neighborhoods increases, Black male students tend to show poorer outcomes. Implications for the finding are reviewed.

School racial composition and academic achievement: the case of Hmong LEP students in the USA

The existence of the achievement gap is more than just a black–white issue; contrary to stereotypes, it is a concern within Asian homes. Hmong students underachieve in comparison with many East Asian students. Traditional cultural practices and poverty have been identified as explanatory factors. Our data suggest that a more critical factor might be within‐school segregation. Utilising a racial exposure statistic, it was found that the more diverse a school became, the higher the achievement of Hmong limited English proficient (LEP) students. This study provides theoretical explanations for this finding and implications for Hmong student achievement.

Addressing Disproportionality with Response to Intervention

Fifty years ago, the United States’ educational system began a transformation to accommodate the large increase in background diversity resulting from the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision. Large-scale studies, like the Moynihan (1965) and Coleman (1966) reports, were conducted to better assess and evaluate the health of this transformation both inside and outside school systems, and programs such as Head Start and Upward Bound were created to increase the probability of success for people of color. Efforts were noble, but results were found to be less than ideal because poor students, ethnic minorities, and/or non-native speakers of English were found to be more likely to be placed in special education programs than their white peers (Dunn, 1968). This trend of disproportionate representation of minorities in special education has continued for the next 40 years (Chinn and Hughes, 1987; Heller, Holtzman, and Messick, 1982; Hosp and Reschly, 2004; MacMillan and Reschly, 1998; Skiba, Poloni-Staudinger, Simmons, Feggins-Assiz, and Chung, 2006). Disproportionality in special education is concerning because of the effects of labeling, segregation, and low exit rates from special education services. Consistent with the classic research on the power of labels (Rosenthal and Jacobsen, 1968), students identified as having behavior problems are perceived and addressed in a more negative manner by teachers regardless of whether or not there is a difference in behavior compared with their peers (Mehan, Hertweck, and Miehls, 1986). They may suffer from a diminished self-concept (CampbellWhatley and Comer, 2000), and poor postsecondary outcomes (Malmgren, Edgar, and Neel, 1998). Despite the least restrictive environment provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004, 2006), students of color receiving special education services are more likely to be taught in segregated environments than Caucasian students (Donovan and Cross, 2002; Hosp and Reschly, 2002). These realities have pushed educators to examine the disproportionate representation of minorities in special education more closely. Research examining disproportionality has generally been conducted at the district level, or occasionally the state level (i.e., comparing identification rates among districts or states). Although this is important work to establish the presence or severity of a problem, it has not been fruitful at identifying solutions to the problem (Chinn and Hughes, 1987). One reason for this could be that this research has focused on placement rates rather than reasons for identification for special education services or the outcomes from their provision. Some scholars have examined methods of predicting disproportionality (cf., Finn, 1982; Oswald, Coutinho, Best, and Singh, 1999), but these have not yielded educationally relevant solutions perhaps because most of the identified predictors are inalterable variables (Hosp and Reschly, 2004). While this research is important from a civil rights perspective, it has failed to yield solutions to inequitable education outcomes among different groups of students. In recent years, some have called for studies that extend the literature to the individual level (i.e., looking at what variables specific to individual students might predict disproportionality) so that more sensitive analyses can be conducted regarding the

School Contexts and "Acting White": Peer Networks of Somali Immigrant Youths in an Afrocentric Charter School.

We examine whether the “acting white” labeling practice and subsequent peer isolation exist (or do not exist) within Somali immigrant adolescents, one of the most underresearched black immigrant student groups, and what school contexts are associated with their presence (or absence). Using a case study, we found that high-achieving Somali immigrant students in an urban Afrocentric charter school in the United States were not isolated from their peers. Rather, they tended to have a relatively large-sized social network and also seemed to enjoy relative popularity in their peer networks. Additionally, they tended to be gregarious with other high-achievers. Importantly, certain school contexts facilitated the nonexistence of an “acting white” labeling practice and a peer isolation culture in the school. Specifically, the “acting white” phenomenon may not be applicable to a small and racially/ethnically homogenous school where an academically-oriented and college-bound culture is shared by students.

Deciphering Somali Immigrant Adolescents’ Navigation and Interpretation of Resources Embedded in Social Relationships

Through social relationships, social capital is accumulated. Growing evidence supports the presence of social capital influencing academic outcomes through structural opportunities. Unfortunately, little evidence can be found to explain how differences in social capital application toward academic outcomes can occur with seemingly similar individual with the same structural opportunities. This area of interest is particularly important for populations with limited or less visible opportunities. This study examined the social networks of Somali-American students to determine the factors that may lead to differential utilization of resources within similar social networks. A mixed-methods approach was employed in this study. Based on the findings, the authors argue for a broadening of the social capital in education discourse to include agency within structural opportunities.

Critical Adult Learning of Asian Immigrant Workers: A Social Network Perspective.

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2006 Adult Education Research Conference, May 20, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to This study reveals how the social networks of immigrant workers play a key role in mediating critical learning towards a particular political attitude. Theoretical relationships between critical learning and political attitudes were set up and four types of political attitudes were identified. A “resistant political attitude” was conceptually linked to critical learning, and this link was investigated by using social network analysis. Finally, based on the social network analysis, we argue that both the network size and network position of immigrant workers who represented a resistant political attitude tended to shape critical adult learning when they were associated with the collective reinterpretation of the immigrant workers’ social lives.